Monday, August 28, 2017

Ray Donovan 5.4: How to Sell a Script

My favorite part of tonight's Ray Donovan 5.4 was the Mickey story, and how he goes about getting his Clover script into business. It's something every writer who's not already a successful screen writer can relate to.

First, Mickey can't get to first or any base with his script. Who knows how good it is - actually, from the little part he read to himself and us in the car, it had potential (though that may be just be a commentary on my taste or lack of). But the point is that unless you have someone attached to it - someone usually being an actor with some heft - you won't get anywhere if you aren't already somewhere in Hollywood.

Fortune smiles on Mickey when he comes upon a successful actor in trouble - not in movie-making but in real life, as in accidentally cutting off the head of his samurai master teacher. Not to worry, Mick knows what to do. Cut up the body, put the parts in buckets of concrete, and throw them all in the ocean. (Actually, I would have thrown them in different places, miles or whatever apart in the water, but I know even less about disposing dead bodies than I do about selling screenplays.) (If you must know, I've so far had a total of one story made into a short movie - but that was not by anyone famous in Hollywood, though the movie is on Amazon Prime for free now - see end of this review.)

But back to Mick, after disposing of the late sensei, he breaks the news to the actor aka accidental killer - Mick's price for the body disposal is Jay (the actor) has to get behind Mick's script. This couldn't have come at a better time for Mick, having just been rejected along with his script by some high fallutin' agency.

(Hey, you know what? I'd pay money to see Mick's movie. Maybe not, I'll wait for it on Amazon Prime.)

But back to Ray - it's sad business, Abby being gone, which is why I'll end this here on happy note about Mick now having a fighting chance of breaking through.

About Me

Paul Levinson, PhD, is Professor of Communication &
Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City.His 8 nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997),
Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), Cellphone (2004), and New New Media (2009, 2nd edition 2012), have been the
subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science
Monitor, and have been translated into 12 languages. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, ebook 2012), Borrowed Tides (2001), TheConsciousness Plague (2002, 2013), The Pixel Eye (2003), The Plot To SaveSocrates (2006, ebook 2012), and Unburning Alexandria (2013).His short stories
have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards.Paul Levinson appears on "The
O'Reilly Factor" (Fox News), "The CBS Evening News,"“NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS),“Nightline” (ABC), NPR, and numerous
national and international TV and radio programs. His 1972 album, Twice Upon a Rhyme, was re-issued in 2009 (CD) and 2010 (remastered vinyl). He reviews the best of
television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of
Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

e-mail received from a reader:Dear Paul, I just dreamed of airships flying between raindrops. I just returned from 2042 CE, where I sold my hardcover copy of The Plot to Save Socrates for seventy million Neo-Euros, because it had your response to this e-mail from way back in 2007 scotch-taped onto the inside of the cover. A Paul Levinson collector paid top Neo-Euro, because of the authentic archaic e-mail printout from you. It turns out that not many of your e-mails from before your tenure as CEO of HBO/Cinemax and terms as United Nations Secretary General will survive that far into the future. So, please respond to this e-mail, to help found my great-grandchildren's fortune. My Will will stipulate that they must share with your great grandchidren. Thanks! Tom